Shift to nuke power baffles green groups

SAFETY ISSUE Noted geologist Kelvin Rodolfo says the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant that the Duterte administration plans to activate sits on an active earthquake fault, is located near the Manila Trench-Luzon Trough, and stands in the shadow of a volcano. —LYN RILLON

The Duterte administration’s decision to revive the Marcos-era Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) has baffled environmental groups which point out that even technologically advanced Japan and Germany have moved away from nuclear power.

Gerry Arances, Center for Energy Ecology and Development convenor, said Japan was still grappling with the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in which harmful radioactive material was released into the environment after a powerful earthquake and tsunami.

“The Philippines’ sudden move toward nuclear energy is baffling given that (we are) less technologically equipped but similarly vulnerable to environmental disasters as Japan. Japan is a developed country yet it has started to move away from nuclear power,” Arances said.

Greater risks

Germany is another developed country that pulled the plug on nuclear energy after the Fukushima meltdown, apparently reckoning the risks were greater than the benefits,

he said.

Sanlakas secretary general Aaron Pedrosa pointed out that the location of the country put it at greater risk of a nuclear radiation leak.

“Given how a nuclear power plant is by itself dangerous, our geographical location along a typhoon belt and the Ring of Fire (region in the Pacific where many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur) threatens to exponentially magnify the risks of reviving this nuclear plant,” Pedrosa said.

“The revival of the BNPP is an environmental disaster waiting to happen,” he said.